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We Bet You Didn’t Know How These Commonly Used Words Originated!

We Bet You Didn’t Know How These Commonly Used Words Originated!

We throw around these words on the regular but have no idea where they came from. Everyone has their own theories about the origins of certain words. Sometimes their creative and tell a cute and funny story however they’re often incorrect. These are the true roots of these 8 commonly used words.

We throw around these words on the regular but have no idea where they came from. Everyone has their own theories about the origins of certain words. Sometimes their creative and tell a cute and funny story however they’re often incorrect. These are the true roots of these 8 commonly used words, and they may surprise you.

1. Woman

Many people mistakenly believe that the word “woman” comes from the phrase “woven from man.” Although it seems like a clever allusion to the Bible’s description of woman’s creation, it is not the case. “Woman” comes from the Old English word “wiffman” which means “woman person.” “Wiff” means woman and “Man” means human being.

2. Nasty

The word “Nasty” is wrongly believed to come from the last name of a cartoonist who wrote spiteful cartoons, Thomas Nast. The origin of “nasty” is unclear but is more likely related to the Dutch word Nestig which mean dirty. The word existed hundreds of years before Nast and can be found in one of the most famous works of all time, the Leviathan. In that, Hobbes writes that the life of a man is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

3. Picnic

The origin of this word was scrambled and misconstrued over the years. People claim that the word picnic was used to describe the time when people bought slaves. However, the word comes from the 17th-century French word piquenique. It makes sense; what a picnic without wine, cheese, and a French baguette.

4. Buck

The word we use to refer to a dollar, Buck is an abbreviation of the word “buckskin.” Buckskins are the skins of male deer that were once used in trade.

5. Sincere

Many believe that the word “sincere” comes from the Latin words sine care which means “without wax.” Long ago, people would check if a statue was real by seeing if there was any wax on it. If

there was then it was a fake. Although that story sounds cool, the sincere truth behind this word is that it comes from sincere which simply means true and genuine.

6. SWAG

Some people claim that the word swag stands for “Stuff we all get,” however they’re wrong about that. The word swag was used to refer to the loot or booty that thieves stole in the early 19th century.

7. Emoji

It only makes sense to believe that the word “Emoji” is short for the word emoticon. However, its origin is a Japanese word. “E” in Japanese means image and “moji” means character.

8. Marmalade

The story goes; Mary, Queen of Scots, ate marmalade when she had a headache. Her maid whispered “Marie est malade,” (Mary is ill). Unfortunately, the origin of the word is not as cute as the false one. Marmalade comes from the Portuguese word “marmelo” which means “quince.”